Risk Capital

Those who tour the 1997 Philharmonic House of Design will get not only a great view of San Juan Capistrano but also a glimpse of what home interiors will look like in the year 2000.

Using the latest design trends, 25 members of the American Society of Interior Designers/Orange County Chapter have given the 13,000-square-foot English Normandy-style estate a sweeping make-over. Some of the colors, fabrics and textures seen in the hilltop residence are so new to home design that it will be several years before they reach the mass market.

House of Design has traditionally given home decorators a chance to ogle--and imitate--the creations of many top local interior designers under one very large roof. Tours of the dream homes benefit the Orange County Philharmonic Society, which stages the annual event to raise funds for its musical outreach programs for youth. Last year’s home tour netted $250,000.

The 1997 House of Design, called Vista Capistrano and owned by Al and Lois Grasso, will be open for tours until May 18. Because the Grassos are living in their Newport Beach home, designers could work freely in the vacant estate--their idea of a blank canvas.

While any permanent changes such as flooring or new counter tops had to meet with the owners’ approval, the designers had unlimited freedom with the furnishings. Designers lend the furnishings for the tour, usually borrowing pieces from their showrooms, their clients and manufacturers. One client loaned the 15th century Spanish knight’s armor that stands in the entry.

Each room has been decorated by a different designer, but all worked from a single color palette that includes mossy greens, gold, a lipstick red and an off-white waxy magnolia color.

Such hues look unusual and fresh today, but in a few years they will be all over stores’ home departments, designers predict, much the way teal and purple have spread from tony interiors to Target.

“As always, the designers have taken a color palette that will be in the public’s homes in two years,” says DeAnna Brody, ASID chairwoman for the House of Design. “Khaki will be predominant, and we’re seeing a lot of lipstick. Bolder colors are coming back. In the past we’ve had color, but it’s been safe color.”

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At Vista Capistrano, designers have taken color risks.

In the living room, Randy Boyd had the walls painted a sage green that offsets the red background of the lacquered bookcases and the red and gold hues of the drapery and upholstery.

In the hearth room, designers Robert Esterley and Jill Scheetz used Chesterfield chairs covered in red and gold brocade to contrast walls sponged with pale gold paint.

Designer Linda Enochs had the master bath painted with roses and swags in cream and white--an unlikely combination that contrasts with the dark green marble.

“People are often afraid of using cream with crisp white, but it makes an elegant statement without being gaudy,” Brody says.

Texture will be another important element in interior designs of the future; Vista Capistrano has a lot of nubby seisel, hemp and linen softening its floors and walls.

“We’re educating the public to not be afraid of multi-textured homes,” Brody says.

In the dining room, Michael Carey wrapped the walls in natural linen, then tacked up brown grosgrain ribbon in a crisscross pattern as an accent. The walls of the boy’s room by Anna Shay and the club room by Richard Cannon are covered in a mosaic of textured paper called lakta. A braided seisel carpet, with its rough rope-like weave, covers the living room floor.

Achieving variety in surface textures proved no easy task for the designers due to the home’s heavy use of oak--a common feature of interiors of the ‘70s and ‘80s.

“Oak was everywhere,” Brody says. “We wanted it to grow up, to take it into the new millennium.”

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To alleviate the sameness of the wood, each designer found different ways to treat his wood trims. The oak has been painted, lacquered, antiqued and stained beyond recognition.

“A lot of finishes are layers of unusual treatments and patinas,” Brody says.

Designer Ana Ortiz Subirana painted the oak trim throughout the main hall a deeper shade of brown, giving the wood a richer look. Leanne Tamaribuchi updated the oak cabinetry in the butler’s pantry by painting it sage green. In the dramatic oval-shaped entry and stairway, designer Lynda Pratt Notaro used a lime wash that softened and aged the traditional oak of the trim, ceiling crown and banister.

Some quirky features in the home also tested the designers’ creativity. The manor has a “hidden room,” accessible through a bookcase a la Sherlock Holmes. Bill McWhorter turned the hideaway into a mystery writer’s den with a large library table and leather-upholstered chairs.

“This could be Dean Koontz’s room,” Brody says.

Designers decorated the house with a mythical music publisher in mind as a tribute to the Philharmonic. They devoted an entire wing to executive offices furnished with high-tech office furniture and lighting. A mural of a musical score by Brahms adorns the composer’s retreat. To add a note of realism, they decorated an office wall with platinum records and Grammy awards borrowed from recording artists.

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Even if they don’t own an English manor house with spectacular views and a hidden room, visitors can borrow many of the techniques used by the designers.

Larry Froemmling changed an ordinary closet in the hallway into a charming retreat furnished with an upholstered banquette.

“Anyone can do it. You can open a closet by putting in a console or a banquette and have a larger living space,” Brody says.

Many of the glazes, washes and other treatments used to revamp the home’s oak trim can be done at little expense. Some designers made walls look aged or steeped in rich colors by simply sponging on layers of paint in slightly varied hues, as designer Lori Hankins did in the master bedroom.

“I used four shades of green because I wanted it to look like fabric,” Hankins says.

A home decorator can also copy the whimsical wrought-iron chair that sits off the balcony of the master bath: It has a colorful, though impractical, cushion made of dried flowers.

Six landscape design firms worked on the home’s exterior grounds, for which home gardeners can pick up ideas even if they don’t have six acres of real estate. A cluster of birdhouses adorns one area of the grounds, while an eclectic mix of potted plants decorates a patio.

Visitors can meet the designers and ask about their techniques from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. every Thursday and Friday. Regular tour hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. A Marketplace Boutique and the Garden Cafe, catered by the Ritz-Carlton, will be open every day. Tickets are $18 per person or $13 per person for groups of 20 or more. Parking and shuttle service is available from the San Juan Capistrano Community Center & Sports Park on Camino del Avion off of Del Obispo. For information and tickets, (714) 840-7542.